"The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World"

Andrew Ritchie

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The life story of America's
first black star athlete

About the Book

Major Taylor: The first
African-American world champion in
any sport other than boxing, he
catapulted to international fame at
a time when bicycle track racing was
the most popular sport in America
and beyond.

Major Taylor: "The Fastest
Bicycle Rider in the World" is the
true story of a fascinating
African-American pioneering athlete,
who overcame all odds—from sneaking
racism to outright hostility—to
succeed in his chosen field. It is
also the story of a prophet honored
more elsewhere than in his own
country: Even today, a century after
he retired from the sport, Major
Taylor's name is better known in
France than it is in the United
States.

This book sets the record
straight. It is the fullest account
of Taylor's life and achievements, both as an
athlete and as a human being, of one
of the sport's most intriguing
personalities.

This new edition contains numerous updates
updates and additional high-quality
illustrations. The subtitle of this
new edition refers back to Taylor's
own autobiography, which was
entitled
The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the
World.

About the Author

Andrew Ritchie was born in
Edinburgh, Scotland and studied Art
and History at Cambridge University
before embarking on a varied career
in history and photo-journalism. In
1974 he published King of the Road,
the first thoroughly researched
modern history of the bicycle and
its social as well as technical
significance.

When doing research for King of
the Road, he met Major Taylor's only
daughter, Sydney Taylor Brown, then
living in Pittsburgh, PA, who
granted him extensive interviews and
gave him access to her father's
scrapbooks and other family
mementoes.

He soon became convinced that
this was a story worth telling,
providing it was well-researched,
and so he set about on a quest that
included libraries and other
archives in France, America,
Germany, and Australia.

What the Critics Say

Ritchie presents a moving
biography of Marshall W. "Major" Taylor
(1878–1932), a now nearly forgotten
bicycle racer who was one of the
world's premier athletes.

Lionized
in Europe and Australia, where he
defeated the reigning national
champions, Taylor was the victim of
racism at home in the U.S. He
struggled throughout his 16-year
racing career to earn a living in
the sport. A quiet, deeply religious
man—he lost income by refusing to
race on Sundays—he was popular with
the public but shunned by most of
his white counterparts.

Taylor's success on the
racetrack, we're shown, was as much
a tribute to his courage as to his
enormous skill. After his athletic
career ended, his life was plagued
by a series
of personal and business setbacks;
he died in a Chicago welfare
hospital at age 53.

Ritchie's sympathetic portrait
should appeal to a broader audience
than cycling enthusiasts. It is the
story of a genuine American hero.

Publisher's
Weekly, reviewing the first
edition of Major Taylor

A long-overdue and much-needed
biography of a forgotten and
neglected black American sports
hero—Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor
(1878-1932) a world-champion cyclist
and two-time American sprint
champion as well as the most
internationally celebrated American
athlete of his day.

During his remarkable 14-year career
as a professional racer he
established numerous world records,
made a small fortune in prizes and
revenues from commercial
endorsements, raced as a member of
an integrated professional team, and
was the first black ath­lete to
complete regularly in open,
integrated competition for an annual
American championship.
Ritchie’s description of this
pre-automobile craze for speed is
ex­citingly and effectively
presented, and his research has been
thorough, including such significant
documents and resources as Taylor’s
papers, correspondence, and
autobiography, plus interviews with
his daughter.

Ritchie writes perceptively and
understandingly about the black
American experience, and as a
published histori­an of the bicycle
and cycling (King of the Road,
CH, Sep 1976), he captures the sport
in all its demanding physical
challenges and skills. Of immense
interest to those interested in cycling history and
the personal history of black
athletic champions, this work will
undoubtedly stand as the definitive
biography of Major Taylor.

Library Journal, reviewing the first
edition of Major Taylor

Table of Contents

1.

Prologue: Major Taylor's Time

11.

Comeback and Decline

2.

Early Guidance and Inspiration

12.

Difficult Adjustment

3.

Bicycle Boom and Jim Crow

13.

Autobiography and Illness

4.

Precocious Teenager, Colored
Champion of America

14.

Chicago Tragedy

5.

Rising Star

Author's Postscript

6.

New Horizons, New Opposition

About the Photographs

7.

The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the
World

Chapter Notes and
Sources

8.

Champion of America at Last

Glossary of Terms

9.

Major Taylor, Superstar

Annotated Bibliography

10.

World Traveler and International
Celebrity

Index

From the contents

Probably the first photograph of an
integrated sports team in America: The Boston pursuit
race team with Major Taylor.

Major Taylor with wife Daisy and daughter Sydney,
photographed in Paris around 1907.

The memorial to Major Taylor in Worcester, MA, Taylor's
adopted home town. The monument was unveiled in 2008 in
the presence of several prominent black athletes and
Taylor's surviving relatives.